


Memories and Graves

by quoderospero (MythGal)



Category: Class (TV 2016)
Genre: Canon Relationships, Canonical Character Death, Child Abuse, F/M, Gen, Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Episode: s01e08 The Lost, april now looks like herself/human, charlie's life wasn't as nice as he'd like them to think, everyone is learning to cope, from matteusz's parents, no mention of weeping angels because effort, one of the adventures the bunghole squad is forced on, quill basically adopted the adeola siblings because why not, takes place about 9 months after first season, tanya and ram talk about the deaths of their parents and rachel, the humans get to see what Rhodia was really like
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-10 00:41:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17415689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MythGal/pseuds/quoderospero
Summary: "Sometimes Matteusz thought that Charlie was purposely forgetting the bad. He couldn’t blame him. Charlie had lost his people. Everyone he had ever known, loved, and ruled were gone in the span of a day. How would remembering the bad help anyway? Perhaps it was better to remember only the good. Still, Matteusz couldn’t help but think that maybe Charlie wouldn’t get that face, that face that always broke his heart, so much if he remembered that no place was perfect."It was a normal day until it wasn't. A tear opens up at Coal Hill Academy but instead of something coming out, Tanya, Matteusz, Ram, and April find themselves pulled inside and whatever caused them to get sucked in has a funny sense of humor. The four of them have to navigate their way through Charlie's memories of Rhodia, the true memories and not the ones he has shared with them, to find their way out. Perhaps some doors are better left unopened.





	1. Normal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been absolutely obsessed with Class for the last few weeks (since I finally sat down and watched it) and I couldn't stop thinking about Charlie Smith, his friends, and how no one really knows the truth of Rhodia. There are also some things about Charlie that I wanted to explore. Especially the stuff that happened behind the scenes, without even Quill.
> 
> I hope you enjoy.

When Charlie closed his eyes at night, he always saw the same thing. The lush purple leaves. The lilac sky above right before it darkened into the night sky and the stars he loved so much became visible. He could perfectly visualize the way his palace shined pristine and white against the violet hue of the planet he had called home. He remembered walking through the gardens and the pathway to the throne room and the way that the royal portraits were so precisely organized. When Charlie closed his eyes at night, he remembered the good.

When Quill closed her eyes at night, she always saw the same thing. The way the nests were perfectly laid out on their smaller continent. The amethyst sky above right before the darkness gave way to the morning sun she loved so much. She could perfectly picture the way she would ready her weapons with her comrades and friends. The way it felt to move across the lands in heat and cold and feel the rush of adventure through her veins. She remembered stalking through the too white palace of the too pristine Rhodians who thought they were better and the way that the royal portraits seemed to all smirk down at her as she was caught. When Quill closed her eyes at night, she remembered the truth.

Sometimes Matteusz thought that Charlie was purposely forgetting the bad. He couldn’t blame him. Charlie had lost his people. Everyone he had ever known, loved, and ruled were gone in the span of a day. How would remembering the bad help anyway? Perhaps it was better to remember only the good. Still, Matteusz couldn’t help but think that maybe Charlie wouldn’t get that face, that face that always broke his heart, so much if he remembered that no place was perfect. But this was Charlie, Matteusz's beautiful, wonderful, sweet, sad, broken Charlie, and Matteusz knew that meant that Charlie was too scared to admit that his home that he loved and missed so much was anything less than perfect. Charlie was a prince and a prince had to protect his people, and in some weird way, this was Charlie protecting them and himself.

Still, Matteusz would sometimes wonder what Rhodia had been like before the Shadow Kin attack. He wondered what Charlie was like. How he had ruled. Who he had talked to and what he had done. Sometimes, Matteusz wished he could see it. Sometimes, he was glad it was gone. That was a horrible thought and it made him sick the moment he realized the feeling but he couldn’t help it. If Rhodia had never been destroyed, Charlie would have never come to Earth and become his Charlie. Matteusz couldn’t imagine a world in which he had never met and fallen in love with Charlie Smith, the alien prince who was so bad at pretending he was from Sheffield. It was selfish but Matteusz was glad Charlie was Charlie.

The others were curious too. When Quill and Charlie argued slavery versus punishment, Tanya wondered just what had happened on Rhodia. She wondered what kind of “learned society” would turn enemies into slaves forced to throw their lives away for their charges. She wondered how Charlie could think this was okay. When Charlie was confused by the simple things, like the way the leaves changed colors in the fall, April wondered what seasons on his planet had been like. Had they even had seasons? She wondered how the animals and the plants differed and if the Rhodians would have respected “nice” more than her fellow humans. She wondered if everyone had been as broken there as everyone seemed to be here. When Charlie let something slip about how messed up things might have been, Ram wondered what it was really like. He wondered who was more correct in their descriptions of the planet. He wondered if anyone in the whole universe was allowed to be happy. He wondered if Charlie and Quill ever felt as lost as him.

It began like any other day. Well, it began like any normal day, when the children were allowed to be just that. It began like a day where they went to class, kissed their loved ones, and laughed and joked like there wasn’t something that might be lurking in the shadows. On those days, they really felt like normal teenagers just trying to make it through A-levels.

Of course, it wasn’t a normal day and they weren’t normal teenagers.

April chattered away about some committee she was hoping to start up. Ram was distracted thinking about something. Tanya wasn’t sure what he was thinking about but she was sure it had nothing to do with April’s many committees.

She nodded along and added the appropriate “uh-huh” occasionally but Tanya wasn’t really paying attention either.

It was still hard for her. It had only been nine months since her mom had been killed by Corakinus. She could feel the way she’d felt that day, at this very moment it still felt as fresh as if it had only happened that morning.

It was hard to keep living, to keep moving forward. Miss Quill made it easier.

Tanya had to restrain herself from laughing out loud. Somehow Quill had become a parental figure to her, a best friend, a comrade. She supposed that it was partially due to that fact that Tanya and her brothers had been living with Quill since their mother’s death. Their grandmother was too ill to be anyone’s permanent caretaker. They’d sold the Adeola house within the first month, unable to continue living in the building both their parents had died in and moved into Quill’s new home (the complex next to Charlie’s).

It took a while for Jarvis to believe what was happening but Damon was more willing to accept her story. It was less convincing Damon to accept aliens and more convincing Damon to not to kill Charlie and the others for bringing his sister into such a dangerous life.

Still, they were like a little dysfunctional family: Quill, her daughter, and the three Adeola children. It made it just a little easier.

In the beginning, Tanya had blamed Charlie. If he hadn’t come to Coal Hill, she would have never met him, and in turn, the Shadow Kin. If he had used the Cabinet of Souls earlier, her mother wouldn’t have died. If, if, if. But she could still see his face as he shot April, killing Corakinus with her. She could see his face as he released the souls he’d so desperately wanted to save. She could still see the look of relief on his face that sent chills along her spine when he thought the Cabinet was about to kill him too. Tanya couldn’t blame him anymore. It wouldn’t bring her mom back or Ram’s dad or any of the billions of people the Shadow Kin had killed. Charlie was just as much a victim as her. She wouldn’t blame him.

“Matteusz!” April exclaimed excitedly, bringing Tanya out of her thoughts and back to reality. The three made their way through the rest of the hall to Matteusz’s locker where he stood with a quiet Charlie. He’d been like that for the last nine months. Not lost, but not totally found either.

Matteusz blinked as he recognized them. “Good morning.” He smiled, closing the metal door and slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

“I was just telling Tanya and Ram about this new committee I wanted to start. Are you two interested?”

It could have been such a normal day.

It wasn’t.

After Physics, the five friends lingered in Miss Quill's room. Even Ram seemed reluctant to dash off to football practice. They were chattering about weekend plans, which Quill rolled her eyes at. It wasn’t hard in moments like this to forget that these brave warriors (though she’d never call them that to their faces, even Tanya who she actually mildly liked) were just children. That was a fact that sucker punched her after Charles used the Cabinet of Souls and she couldn’t forget it since. Children. They were just children and yet they’d been through so much.

Quill clicked her tongue. The pregnancy and child had made her soft, she decided.

“School’s over. Get out.” She ordered, not needing any more reason to go soft.

Ram rolled his eyes and April laughed. Tanya waved a quick “see ya later” at Quill. Matteusz took Charlie’s hand. The latter smiled up at him, evidence that the battle against the Shadow Kin hadn’t completely broken him.

They clambered through the hallway, about to go their own ways home when a sound like static electricity reverberated behind them. Charlie stiffened, and it took the others only a second longer to realize why.

Another crack was forming.

“Shit.” Ram bit.

In a matter of seconds, several things happened at once.

I. Charlie screamed out in excruciating pain. Something clawed at his mind, digging through his very being. It was like he was dying. Maybe he was. Waves of agony flowed from his head down through his limbs. He thought he heard Matteusz cry his name over his own horrible screams but he wasn’t sure. His knees buckled and he fell to the ground. Charlie was no longer conscious.

II. The sensation of breaking in two, similar to when she shared a heart but so much worse, thudded through April. There wasn’t exactly a pain, but instead a lacking. It was like she didn’t exist anymore. She was nothing but she was everything. She wanted to scream but all that came out was a shocked gasp as she fell into Ram.

III. Ram and Tanya saw their parents. Jasper and Vivian Adeola smiled at their daughter and Tanya thought maybe she really had died this time. They mouthed something, a word she couldn’t understand until suddenly she did. “Run.” Tanya tried but her body betrayed her as her parents turned into something monstrous. Something evil looking and so alien. Of course, it was more aliens. Varun tried to give his son a similar warning but it was too late.

IV. Quill came running.

The moment Quill came into view, the commotion was already over. All five children were collapsed. The crack sizzled out, closing before she had time to examine it further.

She took out her scanner. Alive. They were alive but that was the only good news. It was like their minds, their very consciousness was gone. They were alive but they weren’t there.

She pulled out her phone and dialed one of eight numbers she had on her phone.

“We have a problem.”

\-------

Ram groaned. Something was laying on top of him. Whatever it was, it was too heavy. He pushed at it only to hear a pained groan in return.  
Ram blinked, once twice, before his eyes focused. “Matteusz wake up. Get off of me you gigantic giraffe.” He huffed.

“Don’t call him that,” April muttered, rolling over at Ram’s side. Matteusz coughed but moved off of Ram.

Suddenly he gasped, “Where’s Charlie?”

Tanya shook her head as she sat up. “I think the more important question is where are we.”

The four pushed themselves up. They didn’t know this place but it certainly didn’t look like Earth. What appeared to be brick red moss moved slightly at their feet. A light breeze blew through the similarly colored trees. A large, gleaming, white architecture like twisting spires rising from waves, stood no more than a hundred feet away.

“I know this place.”

A chorus of “What?” sounded at Matteusz’s comment.

“Well, I do not know this place. I have never been here, see. But Charlie talks about it a lot when he is falling asleep.”

The implication of his words cut April like one of the scimiters she could still summon if she concentrated hard enough. A memory from the body she now occupied popped into the forefront of her mind.

“Rhodia.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! This is the first fic I have ever written that I've posted for others to read but I was too excited about Class. I hope you enjoyed. Feel free to leave a comment or kudos. I'd love to hear your thoughts!


	2. Cruel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang finds themselves on Rhodia. As if that wasn't strange enough, there's something weird going on and they need to get down to the bottom of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you guys know, I'm only considering the actual aired episodes as canon but there might be references to things that happened in The Audio Adventures, the book series, or deleted scenes.
> 
> Hey guys! I am in my last semester, meaning I'm crazy busy, but I'll get back to writing as soon as the semester ends. Please bear with me. I appreciate you all.

“It can’t be Rhodia. Rhodia is dead. Isn’t it?” Ram asked, sounding less sure as he spoke.

It was true. Rhodia was dead. Tanya supposed that the planet wasn’t dead but every one of the people was gone. Essentially the same thing. But it didn’t look dead. It looked very much still alive.

“The buildings look so… uh… clean.” Matteusz struggled to think of a word to describe what he suspected to be the royal palace based on the stories he had heard from Charlie. He supposed that it was possible that things aged differently on this completely different planet but he didn’t believe that. It seemed too alive to be Charlie’s Rhodia.

A call in a foreign language shocked them still. What sounded like a child giggling could be heard before they saw anything.

A boy, possibly no older than five or six, with light blond hair and dressed extremely well, ran past them. April had to move out of the way at the last second. The boy didn’t even seem to notice them. He laughed and looked behind him every couple second.

The person behind the boy huffed and struggled to keep up. They spoke in a language none of them knew but it began to shift the more they called out. It wasn’t so much that the person was suddenly speaking English and more that something translated their speech.

April looked concernedly at the two running around in circles around the trees and the four friends without even seeming to see them. She noticed as they ran that something seemed to shift every couple second. It was like the two people’s forms weren’t their own. Similar to the way the speech had been translated for them, it was like their forms had been translated to look human. Perhaps it was a similar technology to what the Doctor had offered her as a solution to her own predicament. She still maintained a Shadow Kin body but it was nearly impossible to tell. She felt and looked human. Nearly. If you paid enough attention, you could see how off she was, small discrepancies that gave away the truth. She wasn’t human anymore.

“Prince, please stop.” The older one begged. The boy just shook his head and giggled some more. “Prince,” they stopped, straightening their back, sounding more serious, “if you do not return to the palace immediately, the King will hear about your absence.”

The boy, the prince supposedly, skidded to a halt. “I understand.”

A shiver ran down Matteusz spine. Even at such a young age, he knew that cadence, that voice belonged to Charlie. He couldn’t help the slight gasp and whisper, “No,” that escaped his throat. The two did not seem to notice. They walked back in the direction they had come.

As soon as they are far enough away, Ram said what they were all thinking, “What the hell was that?”

“I thought everyone was dead.” April muttered.

“They are.” Matteusz agreed. “Is dead.”

“Then who were they?” Ram replied, making that same outrageous face he always had when something alien was going on.

“Charlie. I do not know the other. Perhaps servant.” He shrugged.

“Matteusz, what do you mean? How can that be Charlie?” April asked softly, as if she was worried he was losing his mind. Maybe he was but he knew Charlie and that was Charlie.

“I do not know. But I do not think this is Rhodia. Not Rhodia now.”

“Maybe we went back in time?” Tanya suggested. “They are cracks in time and space after all. Or…” She concentrated on the moss at their feet like it held all the answers.

“Or what?” Ram prompted, as impatient as ever.

Tanya rolled her eyes at him before going back to the moss. Her eyes traveled from the moss to the buildings to the tree that the boy had been hiding behind. “We should follow them. I have a theory.”

April nodded and they each took a step forward. Suddenly they were being pushed forward at hyper speed. It was like they were on a people mover or like their movement had been put on fast forward but they were suddenly at the entrance of the palace.

“I know I shouldn’t have used your father against you. But you know how he gets when you go past the gardens.” The older one with Charlie said, picking the leaves that clearly belonged to the forest they had been standing in earlier.

“I understand.”

“So please, stay in the gardens.”

“Yes, Aim’ot.” Charlie sounded so serious and so much older than he did only minutes earlier but he wasn’t. This was the Prince of Rhodia, not a child.

“Good. The Queen requests you be ready for dinner soon. You should change and wash your hands, my prince.” Aim’ot smiled but Charlie didn’t return it. He simply nodded and made his way into the palace.

Aim’ot looked like he was about to mutter something but the four friends were moved once again.

They found themselves in an empty room. It was as sterile as the outside of the palace but it looked to a bedroom. There was a slightly strange object along the wall, something in between an art piece and a desk. The curves of the desk were like a wave rising from the ground and crashing back down. It was made out of a similar material as the outer walls. There was a single screened object, like an electronic drawing pad on the desk. A large window covered by a curtain was behind the group. Only two other items were in the room. A flat rather uncomfortable-looking slab of metal and unknown material sat in the middle of the room. Blue light pulsed from somewhere deep inside the box. Finally, a painting hung above the slab on the wall. It shimmered similar to the people that they had already seen, their brains translating the image they saw to something more human. It was the royal family. A large hulking man with serious eyes stood in the back. A woman, much smaller with chestnut hair and only slightly kinder eyes than the man, stood at his side. In the front stood Charlie. They were all dressed in fine clothes and wearing crowns upon their heads. The painting was three dimensional, the entire image shifting as the viewer moved.

“Well this is creepy.” Ram muttered. April shushed him.

Matteusz couldn’t help the slight nod he offered in response. It was kind of creepy if he was being honest.

The door pushed open suddenly and Tanya had to leap out of the way, a yelp caught in her throat.

“I will be ready in a moment, Mother. I promise.” Charlie said. He looked the same age but his clothes were entirely different, like a new day had passed in between these two events.

When the door was closed, Charlie sighed and sat on the rectangular slab. The blue light shone bright and shifted to a green. Charlie began to float about eight inches off the slab.

“Woah.” Ram said before Tanya could stop him, but the young prince didn’t seem to notice. He laid back, still floating, as if he were taking a nap. A few minutes passed before the footfalls of someone coming down the hallway outside the room could be heard. Charlie jumped off the bed before any of them could react and ran to the wall. He pressed his hand to it and a closet appeared. He stepped out of the closet, a completely new outfit on, just as the person in the hall knocked on the door.

Charlie didn’t seem to see or hear the group but they decided it was better to be safe than sorry. They escaped behind the curtains and kept very still, hoping that maybe no one else could see them either.

“Come with me, Prince. The King and Queen are awaiting your presence in the dining area.” Charlie nodded, but Matteusz couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t seem too pleased about joining his parents. The person had already started walking away but Charlie hadn’t quite left the room yet.

“I don’t like this.” Matteusz whispered as he and the others slipped out from behind the cloth. 

That was when something entirely unexpected happened.

Charlie turned and looked directly at Matteusz. He stared for a minute before squinting in confusion.

“Hello?” He asked.

April looked like she was encouraging Matteusz to respond. Ram looked like he’d rather Matteusz never speak again. Tanya simply looked calculating.

Charlie sighed, looking displeased. He marched off after whoever it was he was meant to follow.

With the door now shut, Ram burst, “How the hell did he hear you?”

“And why only you?” Tanya said less accusingly.

“Tanya,” April stepped up, “you said earlier that you had a theory. What was it?”

“I’m not sure. But I think, when that thing came through the bunghole and attacked Charlie, we…” She trailed off.

Ram couldn’t take it, “We what?”

“Well, it’s just a theory but I think we might be inside Charlie. I mean, Charlie’s mind.”

“Inside?” Matteusz repeated.

“I think we’re in Charlie’s memories to be more accurate. Whatever creature came through the crack, they somehow threw us or pulled us, I’m not really sure, into Charlie’s memories.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, Ram. Contrary to what you think, I don’t actually know everything.” Ram made a face at Tanya.

“If your theory is correct,” April breaths, “this creature has a cruel sense of humor.”

The group pauses. Ram thought about the others having to rewatch his father’s death or Rachel’s or his leg being disconnected from his body. Tanya thought about everything in her life and how she didn’t want to relive her own life, let alone have others see the events that had happened in her short fifteen years. April thought of her father, and how much worse he’d been back before he’d been sent to prison, not that he was much better now. Matteusz thought about his homophobic parents and how much he didn’t want to think about the many, many arguments ever again.

Charlie had always been very careful about what he shared. Everything about himself and his home were revealed in a very diplomatic way. He would be very upset to know that they were seeing things he perhaps did not want them to see. It wasn’t fair, having everything in your life laid bare without your permission or knowledge.

“Maybe if we just stay in place, we won’t be pushed into the next memory.” April suggested.

Of course, nothing can be that easy.

The movement was like whiplash. It wasn’t like the first two movements. It was sudden, fast, and painful. One moment they were in Charlie’s room and the next they were in a grand room with many people in fancy clothes. They were all seated around a large, white U-shaped table that expanded almost the entirety of the space. What they suspected was food was placed on the table. Everyone seemed to be waiting for something.

Charlie sat at his mother’s side, giving only the briefest of glances at his father. He fidgeted slightly which his mother did not seem to appreciate.

It was a long, drawn-out moment before the King took the bit of his food and everyone seemed to sigh with relief. Everyone began to eat now that the King had.

Charlie was the last to pick up his eating utensil. Overall, he looked very uncomfortable. It was an odd sight, to see the Prince of Rhodia so uncalm but only the friends and Charlie’s parents appeared to notice.

The King did not look pleased.

Matteusz didn’t like the face Charlie’s father made. It was an angry, cruel face. No one else noticed, or at least no one else cared.

“We need to find a way out of here.” Matteusz whispered. “Is not right to see this without Charlie.”

No matter what, they had to get out. It wasn’t right. It was cruel.

Too cruel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much! I apologize for taking so long to write the second chapter. Not sure when the third will be up but I appreciate your patience!
> 
> Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions or thoughts or just wanna say hi. I appreciate the reads and I look forward to getting the next part done. Woohoo


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